I consider the whole "arrogant/presumptuous" charge by McCain to be a racist wolfwhistle. When has supposed (or real) arrogance ever been a major campaign theme? Racists hear "uppity n-----" when they hear those words applied to Obama. So yeah, I think McCain's campaign has played the race card.

In her scurrilous column the second week of July when she slammed Obama for not being a "full-blooded" (i.e., all white) American. The rest of her cohort have been echoing and amplifying that theme. It will get a lot worse before November.

It is very hard for Obama do deal with the slime, but he is doing pretty well. And Joan gets the difficulty and nuance just right in this posting.

McCain could have done what Obama did and start pulling to the middle after gaining the nomination. But he decided to use the Rove Play Book instead.

It's so sad, really. I remember thinking that, even though I really didn't like McCain, if he were the GOP candidate, at least the campaign would be civil.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

It's an integrity thing. You might not understand.

It's really not Ludacris, FISA, Rev. Wright, Rev. Pfleger, Pro-choice issues, misogyny, Chicago thuggery, Rezko, the crazy "presidential seal", laziness and overweening ambition in office; nah, couldn't be any of those. What's not to like?

McCain campaign ismaking same mistakes as the Clinton camapaign.

A few months ago I think Obama telling voters the republicans want to paint his as scary was relevant. I'm not sure it is now. I was surprised to hear him repeat this week in MO.

I agree with Dutchess... "arrogant" is code word of "Uppity".

The McCain "Celebrity Ad" is just bad advertising on McCain's part. First Britney & Paris remind me of Cindy McCain, and yes Obama is liked worldwide. McCain doe not talk about his own policies.

I thought Obama's response Ad was right on.

Maybe Obama should play up McCain as the 'professional ex-POW", but then Obama is above all that.

Truth is republicans only know how to canpaign by being negative, as they have no new ideas.

The official McCain campaign itself will probably stay away from racism except for rather subtle dog-whistle things like introducing Brittany and Paris (the fact that they have a pat explanation for showing them does not mean that it's not a dog-whistle). But surrogates will go as far as they can get away with, and they will probably be coordinated with, if not directed by, those same campaign wizards who did it before and are now working for McCain.

How can someone who claims they are worried about FISA and pro-choice support McCain? The man is lying through his teeth everyday on the campaign trail but you impugn Obama's integrity. Conservatives are piece of work.

This is just a page from Hillary's book. If you took a swipe at her, it was latent misogyny. The criticism was because she was a womyn, blah, blah, blah.

Obama has dealt with it in much the same way. Criticism of him comes from him being black.

It the national way these days, and is more than a little tiresome.

You can criticize Obama without being a hood wearing klansman and you can criticize Hillary without wishing to see her barefoot and chained to your stove.

But we're hypersensitive to this shit these days, and it works.

It's annoying as all hell, but it works.

why is Hillary not still in the race?

The whole idea that Obama is a muslim, socialist, arrogant, frency elitist is laced with racist overtones. None of these charges have an ounce of credibility. They are simply trying to paint him as the other and scare enough Americans into not voting for him. Its typical Republican style politics, run to the lowest common denominator and stay there. Hopefully Americans won't fall for this idiotic stuff. Obama beats McCain on the issues so badly, the McCain camp doesn't have anything to say but ridiculous spurious attacks.

McCain's campaign is actually making Obama look better

Joan, I think you're letting the McCain side off a little too easy in this discussion. I'm afraid that the subliminal miscegenation theme is in fact there in the "Celeb" ad, and I strongly suspect that those behind it (perhaps not McCain himself, but certainly the Rove connected staffers he now has working for him) are all too aware of it.

One thing that struck me here was the remark attributed to McCain staffers that they wanted to show that Obama is "vacuous". Well, there are any number of other celebrities they could have used to try to make that point, and many of them aren't even young, blond women. The problem is that the message simply is not true. Oh, they want desperately to believe that it is, so much so that they've actually convinced themselves of it. But the more people are exposed to Obama the more they will be able to sense the quality of his mind...at least anybody who doesn't have their own mind closed to begin with.

Joan, "she pummeled him"? Hardly! I don't watch TV but if this is what passes for pummeling on TV then meek and mild would makes fall out of our chair. He lead the way. She was not in control of the interview. She's the one who apologized.

Or, maybe the blond bimbos will end up endorsing the dumb candidate? Now, THAT would get votes!

Cards are things for playing poker or crazy eights.

Or you can have your name typed on them, along with your profession and contact information and had them out.

Or you can have your fortune told with them, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Or if you're funny, someone might tell you that you are one.

There is such thing as a no race card, sexism card, gender card, poverty card, etc. etc. It's a really poor shorthand for saying that someone is either being racist, sexist, etc. or that someone is using the existence of that societal problem to get sympathy, votes, power, etc. etc.

The latter idea is absolutely ridiculous, for the most part. Most people do not celebrate/use being treated badly, as if they are a lesser person in society, to gain power. Mainly, they just ask not to be treated badly. And when they do that, some nimrod pops up with "Don't use the race card!" as if that is a card to be played. I do not buy it and have come to truly hate the phrase wherever I see it.

As for what happened with these two politicians, oh, who the hell knows what's going on there? We have to rely on the press and the reactions from both political camps for what's going on. Let's face it: the truth from any of those groups and $1.50 might get you a cup of coffee.